HELP - Reaper Crashing in Windows 7 - using M-Audio Fast Track Pro as Interface

[eporter66]

I have been using Reaper for over a year on a very old PC (Windows XP) with M-Audio Fast track pro and everything had been working fine. I recently bought a new PC / Windows 7 with the specs you see below. This computer has a better processor, so much more RAM etc...and yet, Reaper is not running right. Let me also say there is not much else on the computer, I do have Microsoft Office package as I do work from home and need access/excel. I dont have any games or other programs.

Anyway - I downloaded the latest Reaper version just to make sure everything worked. It has a 60 day trial, so initially everything worked fine. After about 2 weeks I started getting a stutter during playback and when recording. It would stop for a split second at a random point (sometimes it played through just fine), and then continue on.

Now - not only does this occur, but Reaper now just stops and closes with the following message

REAPER HAS STOPPED WORKING
Windows is checking for a solution to the problem...

I have gone to the Reaper forums, but nothing has worked that I have tried (very few suggestions). Anyone have any experience with this type of issue? I am not blaming the program, Reaper has worked great for me. I assume it is something in my setup or M-Audio Drivers, or issues with Windows 7 compatability. Thanks in advance if anyone has a little time to offer some suggestions to fix.


OK - here are the specs :

Reaper v4.31 now v4.32 – EVALUATION LICENSE

Windows 7 – Service Pack 1 – 64bit
Intel® Core ™ i7-3770 CPU@3.4GHz
8GB / 7.81GB usable

M-Audio Fast Track Pro (updated with most recent driver available from avid site)

Thanks,
Eric

[Yodelgoat]

Thats wierd that it suddenly stopped working after it worked for a while. The stuttering makes we think of settings within Reaper itself. Are youusing ASIO drivers? do you have the latest version of Fast track drivers? Are they 64 bit? - I take it you went from a 32 bit OS to 64? I dont use Reaper, but I do use Fast Track for my I/O. It took some tweaking to get the driver settings right - I had to use larger playback and record buffers. It always sucks when you have upgraded, and find it makes for more work.

[eporter66]

Thanks for the response, I did go out and download the latest M-Audio Fast Track Pro drivers from the avid website. It has always worked great, I've had it for a few years, and have used it with Ableton, Pro Tools and Reaper - all with no hassle, I love the product.

Correct, I am now on Windows 7 64 bit. I believe I have it set to 44,100 & 512 - any recommendations on what to change it to? I did have it at 256, and upped to the 512 but the results were the same.

I am continuing to go out to the web to see what I can find. I have a few projects on Reaper, and would hate to change as I am very comfortable using it now, and it has always performed very well. Like I said, I was using it on a much less capable machine, and it was working fine.

Thanks - any other tips you have would be welcome.

Eric

[Jimmy Giant]

Hey Eris,
While I don't use Reaper, I do use Nuendo and built a new pc recently running W7 Sp1.
Specifically audio, I'll offer a couple things to check if you haven't done so already.

Make sure no swap file is on an audio hard drive.
Set processor scheduling to background services and visual effects for best performance.
Disable your network adapters, at least while doing audio.
Use DPC Checker to help troubleshoot. This will show spikes in processing and you can use it to help track down problems http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

Simple things to start with that may have been overlooked. Takes a while to hone in a new system.
Hope this helps.

Jim

[Yodelgoat]

Keep on kicking it up to 1024 or 2048. Also try adding a little more latency by going into the ASIO panel and move the lever towards "safer" rather than "faster" (I think thats a standard function in the ASIO panel).

[dlm]

Are you using any plugins when the crash occurs? I have been using Reaper on Win7 for a few months and have only had problems when I used certain plugins. I am using a Lexicon Alpha with native ASIO drivers as an audio interface. Have you tried ASIO4ALL?

[eporter66]

Are you using any plugins when the crash occurs? I have been using Reaper on Win7 for a few months and have only had problems when I used certain plugins. I am using a Lexicon Alpha with native ASIO drivers as an audio interface. Have you tried ASIO4ALL?

Thanks for all your responses, I really appreciate the help. It appears that it is due to the plug-ins I was using (specifically Organized Trio vst - vst for Hammond Organ I am using). I was told by one of the moderators of the Reaper forums that some of the older vsts do not work well with the dual processors and windows 7 setups. So - I have upgraded my system to a much faster, smoother running computer, but some of the older vsts will cause the system to crash.

Oh well. In case anyone else comes across this problem, one of the suggestions was to run the vsts in a "dedicated" mode. that worked in terms of Reaper not crashing, but did not get rid of the stuttering.

So - I am on the market for some new vsts to use. Currently, it looks like the main vsts I use (Tapeworm for Mellotron, Minimougue for Moog, and Organized Trio for the Hammond) are all potential system crashers, although only the Organized trio showed up in my Event viewer under the error log. So maybe I can get away with just using a different Organ vst.

Thanks again to everyone - I truly appreciate you all taking the time to respond with suggestions. I hope things are running smooth shortly.

Eric

[Plasmatopia]

It's cool that you found a solution. At least the answer was not to buy another computer or a new recording interface...or changing to a whole new DAW.

[eporter66]

It's cool that you found a solution. At least the answer was not to buy another computer or a new recording interface...or changing to a whole new DAW.

Yes - and even cooler that so many people jump in with suggestions or how they corrected their own situation. Very glad that I dont have to replace any equipment, computers are so buggy, drives you crazy! I spend money to get myself a much better system, and Reaper was actually running smoother on a much less capable machine!!! You just never know.

Still have a few bugs to work out - but I think things are coming together. Thanks again!

[LewisForeman]

Who has been able to pick out the best broker among those listed on this site?
https://musicalbuzz.com/best-audio-interfaces/

[progmatist]

Your problem may boil down to using 32 bit VST plugins, ie Organized Trio with a 64 bit host, ie Reaper. They generally don't play well together.

Update: the way I continue using 32 bit plugins is by installing a 32 bit instance of an older version of Sonar. I use Bandlab Sonar, which is 64 bit only BTW, for everything else.